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Art Analysis Art Analysis Antonio Canova Love and Psyche, 1788-1793 One Theme, Several Interpretations Artists in the Neoclassical Era were attracted to the subject of Love and Psyche because its symbols allowed more refined philosophical interpretations with respect to other mythological scenes. Canova himself returned to the theme several times in the early part of his career, sculpting the figures not only on their own but also as they contemplate a butterfly, in the work known as Love and Psyche Standing (1796). He also completed two versions of Love and Psyche reclining, one of which is the piece we see here, commissioned in 1787 and preserved in the Louvre Museum. Inspired by the story taken from Apuleius’ The Golden Ass, the sculpture captures the moment when Love, with a kiss, revives Psyche after she had been wrapped in a cursed sleep for having gone against Venus’ orders and opened the box containing some of the beauty belonging to Persephone, goddess and queen of the underworld. The artist’s inspiration for the figuration probably came from wall drawings seen in Pompei or from a Herculaneum painting of a faun and a Bacchante. Canova had al- ready used that image for a preceding group of Venus Grieving for Adonis. Figg. 1, 2, 3 Antonio Canova, Psyche Revived by Love’s Kiss, 1788-1793. Marble, 155x168 cm. Paris. Musée du Louvre. View of the whole, compositional diagram (above) and detail (on the next page). 1 © ISTITUTO ITALIANO EDIZIONI ATLAS Art Analysis Structure and Symbolic Meaning The marble grouping is constructed according to a series of complex compositional ge- ometries in which even the use of voids as- sumes a formal valence similar to the sculpted mass. The very narrow space separating the lips of the two figures is the central point of the entire composition, the point of intersection between two diagonals that cross like an X. One diagonal runs through Love’s body, from his right wing tip to the toe of his foot while the other, on the left, starts at his left wing tip and runs down through Psyche’s body to the drapery arranged along the base. Therefore the two bodies are arranged along a diagonal and form a pyramid structure that has been drawn upwards by the triangular figure formed by Love’s extended wings. The composition’s centre focuses on another geometric construction generated by the two intersecting circles drawn by the lovers’ arms inscribed inside two arches. One is formed by Psyche’s body together with one of Cupid’s wings, while the other is drawn by the god’s right leg, Psyche’s left arm and by Cupid’s other wing. The work’s structural complexity is easily seen in a frontal viewing of the piece but also it offers various new orientations as the viewer circles around it. Seeing it from all sides allows observers to fully gather corre- spondences, different readings and points How Canova Worked of view. The execution of a sculpture required various stages of work. The first was the The sculpture reflects Wickelmann’s aes- one that Canova termed of “invention” and “arrangement” and it consisted in thetic principles: Love and Psyche are cap- the creation and study of the subject via preparatory sketches. Canova’s sketches tured in the moment before their lips meet in are hasty, general, and focused on finding the best solutions in the lines of profile a lovers’ kiss, a moment charged with tension and in the relationships of plasticity and luminosity. This phase was followed by the realisation of models in terracotta in which the artist evaluated the three- which is purified of any passionate quality, of dimensional rendering of his sketches. The models for Love and Psyche show us any spontaneous emotion. The process of ab- Canova’s repeated attempts to achieve an ideal form through the exploration of straction tends towards the achievement of new compositional solutions as well as via a tiring work of purification from the an ideal form and harmony; it is rationally con- most immediate, realistic and passionate elements. Once the model was realised ducted without, however, erasing all traces of on the same scale as the final artwork, a plaster cast was made. To transfer a human, sensual and vital realm. This is best the plaster image to marble many metallic spots were marked as reference seen in the soft rendering of the flesh of Psy- points. Once the plaster cast was placed next to the marble, the same points che’s body and in the expressive tenderness were repeated on the block of stone via the use of compasses, pantographs, and of Love’s gesture, as well as in the faces’ re- plumb-lines on a scale of 1:1. This method allowed a quite faithful transposition strained tension. The art work was conceived and reproduction of the original design in plaster. to have different layers of meaning. It can be The conclusive phase was reserved for Canova, who called it the “sublime execution”, and that his process of idealising the statue’s parts, rendering them seen as a representation of amor divinus, that more sublime. This was the part of the process in which Canova used all of his is the love that unifies divinity and mortal; as technical expertise to clean and polish the surfaces and forms, giving the statue an idyllic representation of youth, represented its definitive aspect. Moreover the sculptor usually used a mixture of wax and in its transparent innocence; but, on a deeper other substances to give the marble a slight coloration that evoked the flesh’s level, it is also the symbol of the bond between softness and eliminated the stone’s shiny quality. eros (love) and thanatos (death) in which the loving embrace becomes the state of an al- most mystical union (H. Honour). Fig. 4 Antonio Canova, Love and Psyche. Pencil on paper. Bassano del Grappa, Museo Civico. Fig. 5 Antonio Canova, Love and Psyche, 1787. Terracotta, 25x42x28 cm. Venice, Museo Correr. 2 © ISTITUTO ITALIANO EDIZIONI ATLAS.
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